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Will you serve where you are needed most?

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

…  I received a letter from the President, Genl. Washington … to be Secretary of State … with real regret. My wish had been to return to Paris … to see the end of the Revolution …   to return home, to withdraw from Political life …
In my answer of Dec. 15. I expressed these dispositions candidly to the President … but assured him that if it was believed I could be more useful in the administration of the government, I would sacrifice my own inclinations without hesitation … this I left to his decision.
I arrived at Monticello on the 23d. of Dec. where I received a second letter from the President, expressing his continued wish that I should take my station there, but leaving me still at liberty to continue in my former office, if I could not reconcile myself to that now proposed. This silenced my reluctance, and I accepted the new appointment.
Autobiography, 1821

Patrick Lee’s Explanation

Servant leaders lead where they are needed most.

In late 1789, Jefferson temporarily returned home from France, where he served as ambassador. Within days, President Washington’s letter reached him, asking him join the new government as Secretary of State. Jefferson didn’t want the job. He preferred to return to France, witness the peaceful end of their revolution within a year, come home and retire to private life.

He told Washington exactly how he felt, but offered willingly to set his desires aside if the President thought his services would be more helpful at the State Department. Washington reaffirmed his position in a second letter but respected Jefferson’s judgment, to serve in either capacity. With this affirmation from a man he respected greatly, Jefferson agreed to join the new government in New York City.

Had he made the other choice, he would have waited a long time for peace in Paris! The rebellion he thought would end within a year dragged on for many years, with great bloodshed and destruction.

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How long does it take to get from Paris to Norfolk, VA?

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

On the 26th. of Sep. [1789] I left Paris for Havre, where I was detained by contrary winds until the 8th. of Oct. On that day, and the 9th. I crossed over to Cowes, where I had engaged the Clermont, Capt. Colley, to touch for me. She did so, but here again we were detained by contrary winds until the 22d. when we embarked and landed at Norfolk on the 23d. of November.
Autobiography, 1821

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
All leaders are subject to Mother nature! (Some things can’t be hurried.)
Jefferson was America’s ambassador to France for five years. He came home in 1789, to return his two daughters to their native country and attend to business matters before returning to France. That return never happened (to be the subject of another post), but this is a firsthand account of international travel in the 18th century.

He left Paris on September 26, traveling northwest four days by carriage, about 140 miles, to the seaport of Havre on the north coast of France. At Havre, he waited 10 more days for favorable winds to sail west to England. That jaunt took 26 hours to cross 100 miles of the English Channel to Cowes on the Isle of Wright, off the south coast of England. “Boisterous navigation and mortal sickness,” Jefferson wrote of that portion of the trip home. (Jefferson and the Rights of Man, Malone, P. 236) There he waited 13 more days, again for favorable winds. Crossing the Atlantic took 32 days.

I wondered what his phrase “to touch for me” meant. The 19th entry for the word “touch” in Webster’s 7th New Collegiate Dictionary is “to make a brief or incidental stop on shore during a trip by water.” Jefferson had arranged his journey in advance. Part of this careful man’s planning included having the Clermont make a brief stop at Cowes to pick him up.

It took 58 days total to get from Paris to Norfolk, VA. Orbitz doesn’t show a direct flight for this route, but it does have one from Paris to New York, about the same distance. That one takes 8 ½ hours. 

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Can’t we just get along?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other, and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peaceable minds. Tranquility is the old man’s milk. I go to enjoy it in a few days, and to exchange the roar and tumult of bulls and bears, for the prattle of my grandchildren and senile rest …
To Edward Rutledge, June 24, 1797
The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Edited by Koch & Peden, P. 498-499

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Wise leaders keep political and personal interests separate.
Jefferson had been Vice-President less than four months when he wrote this. As presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, he made these observations about the extreme partisanship he saw there:
1. He remembered when men could keep strong political differences from affecting their personal friendships. That time was gone.
2. Political opponents would go out of their way to avoid each other so they wouldn’t have to offer a greeting or even acknowledge the other’s presence.
3. Some young men might seek confrontation because of their youth or inexperience, but it was offensive to those who sought peace.
4. Old men want peace.
He called these opponents “bulls and bears” and looked forward trading their “roar and tumult” for the noise of his grandchildren, whom he would soon see at home at Monticello. (Even though he claimed the rest due a fading old man, he was only 54. His leadership would continue for 29 more years.)

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What do maple trees have to do with slavery?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

Though large countries within our Union are covered with the Sugar maple as heavily as can be concieved [sic], and that this tree yeilds [sic] a sugar equal to the best from the cane, yeilds it in great quantity, with no other labor than what the women and girls can bestow, who attend to the drawing off and boiling the liquor, and the trees when skilfully tapped will last a great number of years, yet the ease with which we had formerly got cane sugar, had prevented our attending to this resource…What a blessing to substitute a sugar which requires only the labour of children, for that which it is said renders the slavery of the blacks necessary.
To Benjamin Vaughan, June 27, 1790

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Vexed leaders continually seek solutions to vexing problems.
Jefferson takes a serious knock on the issue of slavery. He could have been more active or vocal, but there were substantive reasons for his measured approach to one of the most vexing issues of his day. The purpose of this post is to illuminate one area where he worked to minimize the need for slave labor. One way to reduce slavery was to eliminate the demand that drove it.
Slaves in the Caribbean, the West Indies, provided the labor needed to produce molasses and sugar from sugar cane. The supply was abundant and perhaps cheap. There was no need to look elsewhere.
Jefferson proposed cultivating domestic sugar maples as an alternative supply of the sweet stuff. Why? It could be produced by women and children, lessening demand for the imported product and the corresponding need for slave labor to produce it.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, a lifelong friend of Jefferson’s, championed the freedom aspect of domestic sugar “to lessen or destroy the consumption of West Indian sugar, and thus indirectly to destroy negro slavery.”
Jefferson’s effort to grow his own sugar crop and be an example wasn’t successful. He planted at least 80 maples. Years later, only two remained. At least he tried.
Some years later, he began investigating the new French culture of the sugar beet for the same reason:  ”[It] promises to supplant the cane particularly, and to silence the demand for the inhuman species of labour employed in it’s culture and manipulation.”
The link above, associated with Benjamin Vaughn’s name, will take you to Monticello’s web site. These excerpts are there, along with an article on the slavery-reducing possibilities of domestic sugar production.

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Off with their heads? Let this be a warning …

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

We have just received here the news of the decapitation of the king of France. Should the present ferment in Europe not produce republics every where, it will at least soften the monarchical governments by rendering monarchs amenable to punishment like other criminals, and doing away that aegis [protection] of insolence and oppression, the inviolability of the king’s person. We I hope shall adhere to our republican government, and keep it to it’s original principles by narrowly watching it.
To Joseph Fay, March 18, 1793
Document A-10

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
No leader is above the law forever … or safe from the mob.
The beheaded king was Louis XVI, whom Jefferson had known during his tenure as ambassador to France, 1784-89. Jefferson had seen some good qualities in the man, but those were compromised by personality defects, a fondness for alcohol and pleasure, and an overbearing wife, Marie Antoinette. She lost her head, too.
Jefferson hoped the turmoil in France would lead to a more republican government there and an inspiration toward that end in other countries. Even if this act of supreme violence against the king didn’t “produce republics every where,” at least it would serve as a warning to other monarchs. They were not above the law.
Jefferson continued to espouse America’s “republican government” and the necessity of “narrowly watching it.” Devotion to our “original principles” would keep America from becoming like European monarchies.

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I just want you to know …

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

Very early in the course of my researches into the laws of Virginia, I observed that many of them were already lost, and many more on the point of being lost, as existing only in single copies …
This leads us then to the only means of preserving those remains of our laws now under consideration, that is, a multiplication of printed copies. I think therefore that there should be printed at public expense, an edition of all the laws ever passed by our legislatures which can now be found; that a copy should be deposited in every public library in America, in the principal public offices within the State, and some perhaps in the most distinguished public libraries of Europe, and that the rest should be sold to individuals, towards reimbursing the expences of the edition …
To George Wythe, January 16, 1796

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Wise leaders appreciate a government of laws, not of men.
George Wythe was Jefferson’ mentor and friend, directed his study to become a lawyer, and was a co-signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolutionary War, Jefferson devoted himself to a revision of the laws of Virginia, many which existed only as a single copy. Other laws, he feared, were lost forever. To combat this, he proposed printing at public expense “all the laws every passed by our legislatures,” a work that might be contained in four volumes.
This was practical, not just some academic exercise. He wanted that work placed in every public library in the nation, in Virginia’s public offices, even in the best libraries of Europe. In other words, he wanted the laws to be distributed as widely as possible, accessible by all.
Ever conservative about public expenditures, some of the printing cost might be recaptured by selling copies, too.

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Educate GIRLS, too? And at PUBLIC expense?!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

About 20. years ago, I drew a bill for our legislature, which proposed to lay off every county into hundreds or townships of 5. or 6. miles square, in the centre of each of which was to be a free English school; the whole state was further laid off into 10. districts, in each of which was to be a college for teaching the languages, geography, surveying, and other useful things of that grade; and then a single University for the sciences. It was received with enthusiasm …
To Doctor Joseph Priestly, January 27, 1800

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Self-limiting leaders want well-educated constituents.
Jefferson believed an educated citizenry was essential for self-government and to maintain the republican (small r) principles on which the United States was established.
This was his “Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowledge,” radical for two reasons. First, it provided for education at PUBLIC expense, and second, it included both boys AND girls. This was in a time when the ones who received any kind of formal education were those born white, male and to parents of means, because all education was privately funded. (Though not spelled out in Jefferson’s legislation, the offer of universal, publicly-funded education did not extend to children of slaves.)
Education in the “English school” was for three years. Each school was to be located within walking distance of all the children in the county.
Ten grammar schools, referred to here as “a college,” were funded by private tuition, with one exception. The top male graduate of each “English school” whose parents lacked the means for further education would be given a scholarship to the grammar school. Each school was to be located within one day’s travel of the students’ homes.
The “University” was to have been the College of William and Mary. That education was also privately funded, but the need-based scholarship program continued even to this level.
The “enthusiasm” for Jefferson’s plan didn’t last. It was never adopted. Parts of it were later made optional on a county-by-county basis.
Politics (and religion) interfered with expanding William and Mary. Eventually, he would lead the University of Virginia into existence, fulfilling only the top tier of his plan.

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Did Jefferson oppose Islam?

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

This post features a departure from our usual form and begins with a reader’s question:
“There has been some talk lately about comments made by Mr. Jefferson concerning the muslems and their radical religious views.  It has been mentioned on TV by Fox News commentators, as well as Glenn Beck and others.  It is being discussed that Mr. Jefferson took a bold and strong position about their dangerous position to the world and the united states.  Supposedly, the muslems made threats to other countries.  France was supposedly one of them. Mr. Jefferson warned the world leaders to be cautious about the radical muslems.  Is that true?  Please comment.”

Patrick Lee’s Comment
This will be a challenge to compress into a short reply!
1. Jefferson authored a bill, adopted in the 1780s, to dis-establish the official state-supported church in Virginia. Decades later, he wrote in his Autobiography, “The bill for establishing religious freedom…  was meant to be universal … within the mantle of it’s protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Muslim], the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.”
2. Jefferson would have warned about the dangers posed by ANY radical person, group, denomination, authority, political party or government that wanted to impose its views, religious or otherwise, on others by force.
3. From the time Jefferson was Ambassador to France in the mid-1780s through the rest of his political career, he contended with the “Barbary pirates,” the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco and Algiers. Those states demanded annual tribute (bribes) from nations shipping in the Mediterranean, or they would capture their ships and hold their crew and cargo for ransom. Those North African states happened to be Muslim. He strongly opposed their actions, not their religion.
4. Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone cited a March 28, 1786 letter from John Adams and Jefferson to John Jay. (Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, 1783-1789, Vol. 1, p. 604-5. I could not find the text.) They wrote that the Tripoli minister “…calmly asserted that it was the duty of his countrymen to make war on “sinners”.” (Malone, Jefferson and the Rights of Man, p. 52) Read into that what you will.
5. You can make a strong case that Jefferson would oppose radical expressions of anything that would deny people their creator-endowed natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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Speak up, friend. It will not hurt my feelings.

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, & proves to me their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their sentiments & those of others on interesting points where I am to act, and where information & warning is so essential to excite in me that due reflection which ought to precede action.
To Wilson Cary Nicholas, September 7, 1803

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Well-grounded leaders appreciate friends who speak to them freely.
This is the conclusion of the letter I excerpted on April 24, where Jefferson explained his thoughts on strict vs. loose interpretation of the Constitution.
I don’t have Nicholas’ letter to Jefferson, but it appears the former may have apologized in advance for, as we might say today, “getting in the President’s face.” Jefferson put his friend at ease.
Not only was there nothing to apologize for, Jefferson welcomed such input from his friends. In fact, it even proved their friendship, that they would be willing to go out on a limb to challenge him. While very sensitive to criticism he thought unfounded or mean-spirited, he invited advice from well-intentioned people while he was weighing a matter that required action.

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2 Comments Posted in Personal preferences, Politics Tagged , , , |

This is why I should not. (I am going to do it anyway.)

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Thomas Jefferson Leadership

When an instrument [the Constitution] admits two constructions [interpretations], the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe & precise. I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless. Our peculiar security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
To Wilson Cary Nicholas, September 7, 1803

Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Wise leaders support clear limits on their authority.
Nicholas was a close friend, political supporter and U.S. Senator from Virginia. The subject at hand was whether the Constitution gave the U.S. the right to add new land to the nation, in this case, Louisiana. Jefferson thought not and wanted to amend the Constitution. His friends talked him out of it.
Here, Jefferson argued his ideal position, going no further than what the Constitution clearly allowed and staying away from what it might imply. Amend it if necessary but don’t make it “a blank paper,” i.e. meaningless and toothless by teasing out whatever meaning one wanted at the time.
Jefferson still takes a lot of heat for espousing “strict construction” of the Constitution yet deliberately going beyond its authority to purchase Louisiana. That will probably be the subject of another post.

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